Plenty of opposition at fracking panel meeting

A protest sign is seen outside a meeting hall in Windsor during Thursday night's public meeting on hydraulic fracturing. (GORDON DELANEY / Valley Bureau)

WINDSOR — They came armed with signs, pamphlets and even protest songs. Some came hungry for information, but most came to express their opposition.

Almost 300 people filled the Hants County War Memorial Community Centre on Thursday night for one of the province’s final public consultation meetings on hydraulic fracturing.

The meeting started off with songs by the Raging Grannies activist group, warning about society’s “addiction to energy use” and the hazards of global warning.

Outside the building and along the walls inside the gymnasium were signs delivering varying messages but mostly the message “No Fracking Way.” A petition to Premier Stephen McNeil was circulated through the crowd.

David Wheeler, the Cape Breton University president who is chairman of the Nova Scotia Expert Panel on Hydraulic Fracturing, repeated his message that the consultation meetings are more academic than political.

“This is not a political process,” he told the gathering. “The political process starts the day we hand our report over to the government.

“The panel is not making a political decision. But it will make recommendations to government that will help it make the political decision.”

Fracking is a “very divisive issue,” Wheeler said. The room broke into applause when he added that the panel’s polling indicates most people are against the contentious method of natural gas extraction.

The crowd also applauded when he reiterated the panel is not saying fracking should be allowed. But he said there needs to be time for consideration and debate.

He added the province would not develop a large-scale hydraulic fracturing industry without community permission based on in-depth research and studies.

“We are a long way from that … at least 10 years.”

Fracking is the procedure of injecting water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to release and capture gas. The previous NDP government implemented a moratorium on fracking in the province pending further research and study.

The Ecology Action Centre has expressed concern the panel will recommend lifting the moratorium.

Wheeler has said the panel will not tell the government what to do with the moratorium. He said a decision needs to be based on evidence-based research and an assessment of risks and benefits.

Duncan Keppie, a geologist, interrupted the chairman’s presentation to say he didn’t think the panel process is objective. He said some information in discussion papers the panel has released was prepared by the gas industry.

He also challenged potential gas reserve estimates cited by the panel.

One woman said people are reconnecting with the land and don’t want it destroyed for economic gain. She said industry has no control over the damage it will do, despite regulations.

Marilyn Cameron, chairwoman of the No Farms No Food group in Kings County, said the potential gas reserves are beneath Nova Scotia farmland that supports a $657-million-a-year industry employing 58,000 people.

“We have heavily invested in agriculture here, to help farmers grow more food. We want to keep our farms,” Cameron said.

“Nobody wants fracked food,” she said to applause.

“That’s why we’re saying that community permission is a prerequisite for anything happening … in what is essentially a huge industrial activity,” Wheeler responded.

The majority of people at the meeting were clearly against the activity, expressing concerns over air and water quality and health impacts. One speaker warned that any political party that lifts the moratorium would be committing political suicide.

David Meister, a sixth-generation farmer from New Ross, said he is worried about surface issues around natural gas wells. He added that this province has had a poor history with regulation and industry transparency.

Tyler Smith, who recently moved to Ellershouse, Hants County, from Halifax, said he is worried about what could happen to his water quality “because a private company wants to make some money.”

The crowd responded enthusiastically when Wolfville lawyer Mark Tipperman suggested the Liberals step up and impose an outright ban on fracking.